Don't let Trump stop vital Gateway project: Editorial

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao confirms President Trump is urging lawmakers to block funding for the Gateway tunnel project between New York and New Jersey during a House committee meeting on Tuesday, March 6, 2018.
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President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., during a meeting with other Congressional leaders in the Oval Office.(Photo: Evan Vucci, AP)

The president has played games with the top rail project in the nation, known as Gateway, since he's been in office. But on Tuesday, during a House meeting with Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, President Trump's focus on killing the key infrastructure project became crystal clear.

U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-Cold Spring, hammered at Chao's evasive answers as he asked about the Trump administration's commitment to the project. The heart of Gateway would be a new rail tunnel under the Hudson to supplement failing, century-old tubes that cause delays across the region and sometimes the eastern seaboard.

After pussyfooting around Maloney's grilling, Chao finally acknowledged that Trump was trying to kill the project. "The president is concerned about the viability of this project and the fact that New York and New Jersey have no skin in the game,” she said.

What hooey. A long-established 50-50 split on costs exists. Sure, it won't come cheap — the tunnel would cost $12.9 billion and related projects could push the Gateway pricetag to between $20 and $30 billion — but the need is clear. Without it, the region faces a total collapse of commuter rail in and out of the global financial center. What's the cost of that?

Long-established plans call for the building of a new commuter railroad tunnel under the Hudson to supplement a deteriorating tunnel — more than 100 years old — that provides the only rail link between New Jersey and Manhattan. The existing tunnel, considered to be vital to the economy of the Northeast, was seriously damaged by flooding during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Experts say it mighthave to be taken out of service for repairs in the coming years, a chilling prospect for the metro region.

And yet, Trump — a New Yorker, a builder, a blustery critic of the nation's terrible infrastructure — now appears unwilling to support the project. Why the mixed messages and lack of support for Gateway?

Some say it's out of political spite: Senate Minority Leader and Trump adversary Charles Schumer champions it, so Trump wants to tank it (besides, the two states that benefit most, New York and New Jersey, vote true blue). Some see it as a fiscal decision: The federal government wants New York and New Jersey to pay, portraying a project that connects Northeast corridor train transit as a "local" project.

Hey, if Trump doesn't like Gateway as it's drawn up, then propose an alternative plan. But pushing House Speaker Paul Ryan to pull an initial $950 million in federal funding is not a responsible approach to addressing a looming infrastructure challenge and potential nightmare.

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on Feb. 1, 2018. (Photo: Ricky Flores/The Journal News)

The future growth of the entire New York metro region depends on the Gateway project, according to the Regional Plan Association. The independent, non-profitgroup recently released a detailed blueprint for the region's long-term health, covering everything from housing to the environment to transportation. The group's planners found that without Gateway doubling passenger capacity along the Northeast Corridor, opening the way to more efficient commuting all around, the region could wind up stuck in neutral.

The project could also create some 30,000 jobs.

Gateway is far from dead. Schumer says there is bipartisan support in Congress to maintain initial federal funding for the project in an upcoming omnibus spending bill. But who knows what Trump may pull as he fights for his own infrastructure plan, which would provide $200 billion in federal funds over 10 years with a goal of attracting more than $1 trillion in state and private investments. Democrats now have their own $1 trillion infrastructure plan.

Gateway is too important to fall victim to political nonsense. If all else fails, let's just call it the Trump Gateway project and get on with it.